And it is kind of freaking me out. I don’t think I ever actually gave it much thought, but I assumed something of an even break, not a ring of protruding tapered muscle fingers. It looks like attachment docks so that if you held it against the lizard again it could lock back in place. (I wonder if something like that could be made to work, if there was the right evolutionary pressure?)
I’ll never look at the Geico spokesbeing the same way again.
That’s pretty creepy. I didn’t realize that’s what they look like either.
The first time I took my then-eight-year-old son to Hawaii, he wanted to catch a gecko. There was one in the house we were renting, so he spent some time stalking it around the room. He finally managed to grab it by the tail. It dropped its tail and ran away, leaving him holding a squirming tail in his hand. He screamed and dropped it, and lost all interest in catching a gecko after that point.
I don’t think it is a true gecko but here in SoCal we have these little lizards that can get into the house sometimes.
Once I tried to trap one with a cup and in doing so, cut its tail, which wriggled for a while outside the cup. I got the rest of it up and tossed it outside, off the balcony.
Two days later, I looked out on the wall outside the balcony and saw a tailless lizard glaringly at me balefully (or so I imagined as I was a bit high).
I think it’s pretty cool looking - I’ve never examined one that closely. They are not real easy to catch, and numerous times over the years I’ve been left a gecko tail in my hand. Once a foot came off, but unfortunately they don’t grow back.
